8.11 DAMAGES CHARGES — GENERAL
E. DISABILITY,
IMPAIRMENT AND LOSS OF THE ENJOYMENT OF LIFE, PAIN AND SUFFERING
(Approved 12/96)
If you find for [plaintiff],
he/she is entitled to recover fair and reasonable money damages for the full
extent of the harm caused, no more and no less.
A plaintiff who is awarded a verdict is
entitled to fair and reasonable compensation for any permanent or temporary
injury resulting in disability to or impairment of his/her faculties, health,
or ability to participate in activities, as a proximate result of the
defendant's negligence (or other wrongdoing).
Disability or impairment means worsening, weakening or loss of
faculties, health or ability to participate in activities. It includes the inability to pursue one's normal
pleasure and enjoyment.[1] You must determine how the injury has
deprived [plaintiff] of his/her customary activities as a whole person.[2] This measure of damages is what a reasonable
person would consider to be adequate and just under all the circumstances of
the case to compensate [plaintiff] for his/her injury and his/her
consequent disability, impairment, and the loss of the enjoyment of life.
The law also recognizes as proper items for recovery,
the pain, physical and mental suffering, discomfort, and distress that a person
may endure as a natural consequence of the injury. The measure of damages is what a reasonable
person would consider to be adequate and just under all the circumstances to
compensate [plaintiff].
Here are some factors you may want to
take into account when fixing the amount of the award for disability
impairment, loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering. You may consider [plaintiff's] age,
usual activities, occupation, family responsibilities and similar relevant facts
in evaluating the probable consequences of any injuries you find he/she has
suffered. You are to consider the
nature, character and seriousness of any injury, discomfort or disfigurement. You must also consider their duration, as any
award you make must cover the damages suffered by [plaintiff] since the
accident, to the present time, and even into the future if you find that [plaintiff's]
injury and its consequence have continued to the present time or can reasonably
be expected to continue into the future.
The law does not provide you with any
table, schedule or formula by which a person's pain and suffering disability,
impairment, loss of enjoyment of life may be measured in terms of money. The amount is left to your sound
discretion. You are to use your
discretion to attempt to make the plaintiff whole, so far as money can do so,
based upon reason and sound judgment, without any passion, prejudice, bias or
sympathy. You each know from your common
experience the nature of pain and suffering, disability, impairment and loss of
enjoyment of life and you also know the nature and function of money. The task of equating the two so as to arrive
at a fair and reasonable award of damages requires a high order of human
judgment. For this reason, the law can
provide no better yardstick for your guidance than your own impartial judgment
and experience.
You are to exercise sound judgment as
to what is fair, just and reasonable under all the circumstances. You should, of course, consider the testimony
of [plaintiff] on the subject of his/her discomforts. You should scrutinize all the other evidence
presented by both parties on this subject, including, of course, the testimony
of the doctors who appeared. After
considering the evidence, you shall award a lump sum of money that will fairly
and reasonably compensate [plaintiff] for his/her pain, suffering,
disability, impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Cases:
Simmel v. N.J. Coop Co., 28 N.J. 1
(1958). See also Botta v. Brunner, 26 N.J. 82 (1958); Mengle
v. Shields, 53 N.J. Super. 76 (App. Div. 1958).
Damages may be awarded
for future disability and impairment. Coll
v. Sherry, 29 N.J. 166 (1959).
Damages
may be awarded for mental or nervous impairment consequent upon a physical
injury. Greenberg v. Stanley, 51 N.J.
Super. 90 (App. Div. 1958).
